For the past few weeks, we've seen war scenarios with Iraq bandied about on television like they're game plans for a football game.

Navy, you set up a screen.

Army, you cut across the flat.

Air Force, you go deep.

Ready, break!

The only thing missing from this war talk was John Madden.

Readers of newspapers and television viewers saw maps and graphics that showed in stark detail how and where U.S. armed forces would streak across Iraq and into Baghdad.

The plan looked cut-and-dried, and all the denials from the usual sources seemed all the much more to validate it.

Of course, then came screamingly public word that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had ordered a secret investigation of the war plans leaks.

Huh? A secret investigation that everyone who can pick up a newspaper knows about?

Makes us wonder if Saddam Hussein subscribes to any American newspapers.

So, at this point, we don't know if we're preparing to go to war with Saddam or not.

Maybe all this saber-rattling is just a bluff, trying to make Saddam worry that we're serious - this time - but the wisdom of tipping your hand or waving a red flag in front of a mad bull doesn't readily jump out. It's one thing to talk about war with a legitimate country that has diplomatic abilities at its disposal. It's another to taunt a bully who has no regard for human life.

Saddam has proven time and again that he's a ruthless dictator with an eye toward dominating a region, if not as much of the world as his pitiful regime can hold. He's also proven that his deadly cache includes biological and chemical weapons.

Is all the war talk from the Pentagon going to persuade Saddam to hoist a white flag and live out his days in exile? Or could the bold bravado prod him to use his weapons - all his weapons - in a final display of defiance?